2009 West-wide Energy Corridor Programmatic EIS Archive

A guide to the 2009 West-wide Energy Corridor Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS)

The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management (BLM), are co-lead agencies for this programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) and prepared the PEIS with assistance from Argonne National Laboratory. The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service (USFS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) participated as cooperating agencies for the PEIS.

NOTE: The BLM and USFS Records of Decision, and the Final PEIS are now available for downloading or browsing on the PEIS Documents page. Final PEIS maps of Section 368 energy corridors are also available for browsing/downloading.

The PEIS evaluated potential impacts associated with the proposed action to designate corridors on federal land in eleven Western States (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) for oil, gas and hydrogen pipelines and electricity transmission and distribution facilities. The PEIS also evaluated a No-Action alternative and other alternatives. The BLM and USFS signed Records of Decision (RODs) in January 2009 amending their respective land use plans, designating Section 368 energy corridors as the preferred location for development of energy transport projects on lands managed by the BLM and USFS. The RODs also identified interagency operating procedures (IOPs) to expedite the permitting process; to provide coordinated, consistent interagency management procedures for permitting rights-of-way (ROWs) within the corridors; and to identify mandatory requirements for future projects.

Explore this section to learn more about the PEIS: what it is, why it is needed, what is in it, and where the corridors are located; how the PEIS was prepared and by whom; and information about National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) Section 106 and government-to-government consultation.

PEIS Scope

Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 divided several federal Agencies' schedules for designating transmission corridors on public lands into two groups: (1) “Western States,” consisting of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming; and (2) all other states. This PEIS related solely to corridors in the Western States, and was for corridor establishment only.

For more information about the scope of the PEIS, see What's in the West-wide Energy Corridor PEIS.

PEIS Process

Preparation of the PEIS was a multi-step process that included publication of a Draft PEIS, a Final PEIS and a Record of Decision. These and other PEIS-related documents are available for downloading and browsing on the PEIS Documents page of this website.

Follow the links in the menu at the left to learn more about the PEIS.